DuPage Notebook. Yesterday.

St. Charles At Its Most Moderne

The St. Charles Municipal Building is a striking building today, it must have been even more so when it was dedicated in that largely rural town in 1940.

Overlooking the Fox River just north of Illinois Highway 64, the building was designed by architect R. Harold Zook with D. Coder Taylor in the art moderne style.

The facade is imported Georgian white Cherokee marble with a base of black granite. An 80-foot-high tower rises from the middle of the building, topped with a jewel-like glass top that glows with colored lights.

Designs in shapes of chevrons, octagons, zigzags and facets are repeated throughout, typical of art moderne, said Mike Dixon, who submitted the report qualifying the building for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

The interior of the clock tower is octagonal and serves as an entry and rotunda. The building was donated by Col. Edward J. Baker and Mr. and Mrs. Lester J. Norris, local philanthropists. They directed that one room be set aside for a museum. The St. Charles Historical Society maintains exhibits there today.

The building was also noted because it was one of the first commercial buildings in the country reported to use "tube" (fluorescent) lighting throughout. At one time, residents could enjoy live organ music from the Hotel Baker that was transmitted to the center by under-the-river cables and broadcast from speakers mounted on the tower.